The difficulty of finding clean and sanitary rest rooms, with all of the provisions intact, is well known to all highway travelers. Even when a facility is well cared for, there is an uneasy feeling about using a public toilet.
The desirability of placing an auxiliary toilet seat on top of a regularly installed toilet seat for sanitary reasons has long been recognized. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 396,803 issued Jan. 29, 1889 to Engelbert Breher for WATER CLOSET SEAT PROTECTOR.
Several patents have issued in the last 100 years for different constructions of auxiliary toilet seats. The following patents are exemplary of those that show auxiliary or portable toilet seats that are folded to occupy less space while being transported between uses:
______________________________________ PATENT ISSUE INVEN- NO. DATE TOR TITLE ______________________________________ 496,536 May 2, 1893 Prins PRESERVATIVE COVER FOR WATER CLOSETS 847,678 Mar 19, 1907 Michael CLOSET SEAT 1,405,370 Jan 31, 1922 Weaver PORTABLE SUPPLEMENTAL TOILET SEAT 2,537,504 Jan 9, 1951 Anderson COMBINATION CHILD'S TOILET SEAT AND CARRYING BAG 3,153,248 Oct 20, 1964 Miller TOILET SEAT 3,261,030 July 19, 1966 Blem PORTABLE SEAT ______________________________________
Prins, Michael, and Weaver show hinges at the front and back of the seat so it may be folded longitudinally when not in use. Both Prins and Weaver hinge their seats in such a way that the width of the folded halves of the seat is the same as half the width of an unfolded seat.
Michael provides transverse slides at the hinge points of his toilet seat so that the two halves of the unfolded seat may be pulled apart transversely to widen the seat for adult use, or left together for use by a child. One desirable feature of the folded seat of Michael is that it occupies less space and enables more compact packaging than the folded seats of Prins and Weaver. The compactness of the Michael seat is obtained by the structure of the present invention without the expense and labor intensity of providing the transverse slides.
Anderson and Miller show bags or packages for carrying portable toilet seats when not in use. Anderson's toilet seat is described as a child's seat which is folded and shaped to serve as the handle of a bag for a child's diapers or clothing. The child's seat is, of course, smaller than an adult's toilet seat. Accordingly, Anderson was not concerned with the problem of folding the seat in such a way as to provide a compact package.
Miller's package for his inflatable toilet seat is simply an envelope to hold the deflated seat and nothing more.
Blem provides hinges at all four quadrants of the portable seat. A pair of hinges are provided to define a short segment of the seat at its rear. The short segment of seat functions as an interconnecting link between the rearward segments of the seat to accomplish folding of the seat in compact quarters.